 Proceedings of Engineering and Technology Innovation , vol. 4, 2016, pp. 10 - 12 10 The Innovative Design of Wheelchair with Lifting and Standing Functions Long-Chang Hsieh 1 , Tzu-Hsia Chen 2,* , and Shih-Jie Wei 3 1,2 Department of Power Mechanical Engineering, National Formosa University, Yunlin, Taiwan . 3 Machine Tools Technology Center Industrial Technical Research Institute, Taichung, Taiwan . Received 01 February 2016; received in revised form 27 February 2016; accept ed 06 March 2016 Abstract Traditionally, the mechanism of wheelchair with lifting and standing functions has 2 degrees of freedom, and used 2 power sources to perform these 2 motion function. The mechanis m p ro- posed for wheelchair with lifting and standing functions in this paper has 1 degree of freedom. Hence, we can us e only 1 power source to drive the mechanism to achieve lifting and standing functions. For traditional standing wheelchair, its’ center of gravity moves forward when standing up and it needs 2 auxiliary wheels to prevent dumping. In this paper, by using the checklist method of Osborn, the wheelchair with 1 DOF is invented to perform lift ing and stand- ing functions . The center of gravity of this new wheelchair a fter standing up still located be- tween the front and rear wheels, no auxiliary wheels needed. The new design has the ad- vantages of simple operation, more stability, and more safety. Ke ywor ds : Checklist method, innovative design, wheelchair with lift ing and standing functions 1. Introduction Wheelchair is an important assisted vehic le for the disabled person fo r body mov ing and partic ipat ing social a ctiv it ies. With the pro - gress of sociality, the de mands of wheelcha ir are mo re and more dive rsified . Hence , the standing up [1], lift ing up [ 2], ly ing down [3], tilting down [4], and mu lti-function [5] whee lchairs are invented to satisfy the d isabled person’s need. Figs . 1(a )-1(d) show the whee lchairs with standing, lifting, ly ing, and tilting functions. Th is paper focuses on the innovative design of wheelcha ir with lift ing and standing functions . Currently, the mechanis m of wheelchair with lifting and standing functions has 2 degrees of freedom, and used 2 power sources to perform these 2 mot ion function. The 1 st purpose of this paper is to invent mechanis m with 1 degree of freedom (DOF) to perfo rm lift ing and standing functions . Hence, we can use only 1 powe r source to drive the mechanis m to achieve lifting and standing functions. According to Fig. 1(a), for the traditional standing wheelchair, its’ cen- ter of gravity moves forwa rd when standing up and it needs 2 au xiliary wheels to prevent dumping. The 2 nd purpose of this paper is to improve the above problem. (a) standing (b) lifting (c) bed (d) tilting Fig. 1 Functional wheelchair By refe rring to such related patents [1-5], the studies on kinemat ics of mechanisms [6-8], and the studies on the creative design [8-10], we synthesize a mechanis m with 1 DOG to perform the lifting and standing functions. The center of gravity of this new wheelchair a fter standing up and tilting down still located between the front and rear whee ls, no au xiliary wheels needed. Hence, the new design has the advantages of simp le operation, more stability, and mo re safety. * Corresponding aut hor. Email: son.summer@msa.hinet.net Proceedings of Engineering and Technology Innovation , vol. 4, 2016, pp. 10 - 12 11 Copyright © TAETI 2. Osborn’s Check-List Method The checklist is the simp lest method for problem solving. It is a method that provides hints by checking the ite ms on a prepared list against the problem. In design terms, a checklist is a set of questions that can be asked about any project in an attempt to stimulate ideas. Osborn was called originator of modern cre- ative science. He proposed many creative meth- ods; one of them is Check-list method. In his book “Applied Imagination”, he listed 83 ques- tions that could be used to check for creativity. Professor Dior of Harvard University summa- rized Osborn’s 83 questions to 9 items. The common 9 ite ms are : 1. Reverse, 2. Transfer, 3. Co mbine, 4. Change, 5. Extend, 6. En large, 7. Reduce, 8. Substitute, 9. Rearrange. When we use of Osborn check-list method to create new ideas and designs, we have to make sure that the crea- tions could make advantages instead of just for invention. Therefore, we must ma ke the innova- tion which can bring better performance than current status . 3. Innovative Design The 1 st purpose of this paper is to invent mechanism with 1 degree of freedom (DOF) to perform lift ing and standing functions . According to Fig. 1(a), for the traditional standing wheel- chair, its’ center of gravity moves forward when standing up and it needs 2 auxiliary wheels to prevent dumping. The 2 nd purpose of this paper is to improve the above problems. In this paper, we use Osborn’s check-list method to design the wheelchair having standing and tilting functions . 3.1. Design Requirements The require ments of the mechanis m for wheel- chair with standing and tilting functions are: 1. The mechanism of wheelchair has 1 degree of freedom. 2. The lifting and standing functions can be achieved by using only 1 power source. 3. The center of gravity of this new wheelchair after standing up still located between the front and rear wheels, no auxiliary wheels needed. 3.2. Chick -List method Here, we adopt the transfer, co mb ine, and reduce methods of Osborn check-list method to design the wheelchair with lift ing and standing functions. Fig. 2 shows a mechanism with 1DOG wh ich is the result of innovative design. This new mechanis m can perform the lifting and standing functions. Fig. 2 Ne w mechanis m for mu lti-function wheelchair The new mechanis m will have 9 links and 12 joints (inc luding 1 ca m pair j), i.e. J1=11 and J2=1, its’ degrees of freedom can be written as: F=3(N-1)-2J1-J2=3(9-1)-2(11)-1=1 (1) where F is the degree of freedoms, Ji is the number of joints with i degree of freedom. 3.3. Engineering Design (a) low seated (b) high seated (c) standing p osition Fig. 3 Wheelchair with lifting and standing functions According to Fig. 2, the corresponding 3D drawing of the wheelchair is completed by using the software “Solid Works .” Figs . 3(a ), 3(b), and Proceedings of Engineering and Technology Innovation, vol. 4, 2016, pp. 10 - 12 12 Copyright © TAETI 3(c) show the corresponding diagrams of mu l- tifunctional wheelcha ir at lower seat position, high seat position, and standing position. 4. Conclusions Traditionally, the mechanis m of wheelchair with lifting and standing functions has 2 degrees of freedom, and used 2 power sources to perform these 2 motion function. This invention “Wheelchair with One Degrees of Freedo m to Perform Lifting and Standing Function s ” has two characteristics: 1.The mechanis m of wheelchair is a mechanism with 1 degree of freedom, 2. The wheelcha ir is driven by 1 power source to achieve lift ing and standing motion functions, 3. The center of gravity of this new wheelchair after standing up (or lift ing up) still located between the front and rear wheels, no auxilia ry wheels needed. The results of this paper can be used as a reference for engineering to design the functional wheelchair. Acknowledgement The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China for the support of this research under MOST 104-2221-E-150-055. References [1] K. 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